2 Corinthians 8:1–15

¹) "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, ²for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— ⁵and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. ⁶Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. ⁷But as you excel in everything— in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also. ⁸I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Paul is speaking here to the church in Corinth. He is trying to encourage them to be generous in their giving to the poor. In other words, in stewardship. They had begun to take an offering for the poor, but their enthusiasm had waned and they need some more motivation. So, interestingly enough, Paul tells them the story about the believers in Macedonia who took up an offering to help the saints in Jerusalem during a famine that struck there.

So the basic thing St. Paul is writing about here is being generous in our giving. Especially in the offerings and collections to help the needy and poor. Those suffering various trials. The first thing he mentions about the Macedonians is not only their willingness and desire to help the poor, but also he talks about just how poor they were. They were undergoing severe tests of affliction, yet in the midst of their extreme poverty, they overflowed with generosity toward others.

They wanted to do more to help. They were generous as Paul said, even beyond their ability. They even begged Paul for the favor (grace) of taking part in the relief of the saints in Jerusalem suffering in poverty and famine. Grace, they called it. what is grace? It is an undeserved gift. They considered the chance to help the poor and suffering to be a gift from God. And indeed it is. The poor and needy people around us are gifts from God. The opportunities God gives us to help those in need are his gifts to us. He attaches blessings to our efforts to help others. Such opportunities to help are God's gifts to us.

These Christians in Macedonia were much like us. They were poor. We too are mostly poor, especially if we look at the community as a whole. At the congregation. They were suffering affliction. We too are afflicted. We are getting older. It is more and more painful to move. Our bones and joints don't work like they used to. Incomes don't keep up with the cost of living. We face disease and old age. We experience brokenness in families. Our children are at risk to be sucked into immorality, into violence, into gangs and drugs. Like the Macedonian Christians, we too face persecutions. Friends avoid us when we speak about Christ. We become unpopular in our society. People mock us and say all sorts of things against us. There is a constantly increasing resistance toward people of God and toward churches in our community. We are labeled as fanatics, old-fashioned, superstitious, even uneducated and unintelligent.

In many ways we are very similar to the Macedonians. But in some very important ways we are different too. And what is the difference between us and the Macedonian Christians? They too were poor and afflicted and persecuted, but they looked outward and desired to help others in poverty.

But, oh, too often we hide in a closet and try to keep our faith to ourselves, hidden from public view. We don't want to be criticized. We don't want to be shunned by the people around us, especially those of our own household and family. In our poverty we become stingy with our gifts and help for the poor. We are afraid that if we give too much, we won't have enough left over to take care of our own needs. So we turn our eyes inward. Survival becomes our main concern, not helping others. In short, we become stingy with what God has given us. We become inward focused. What's more, in our individualistic society, we become disconnected from others and lose our love for our neighbor. We see self as the most important theme of life. We look out for our own self before looking out for others. This society is based on competition, success, winning, coming out on top. All things that force us to focus on self and drive love for others right out of our heart. We turn inward on self.

But to be generous, we need to refocus our lives and our priorities. We need love for others, a love that sees their needs and wants to help. But how can we do that? I could just stand here today and tell you to go out and be more generous. To have more love for your neighbor. To stop living just for yourself and start looking out for the needs of others. But that wouldn't work.

We were born sinners. We were born into a sinful world. We were born separated from God, without faith, without the Spirit of God. We were born under the reign of Satan and the evil of this world. We were born dead to God and destined to die. We were born slaves to sin, corruption, selfishness, greed. We are trapped in sin. We are trapped in selfishness. There is no way out for us, so there is nothing we can do. We cannot free ourselves from our slavery, from our addictions, from our obsessions, not even from our selfishness. As God says: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you walked following the course of this world." (Eph 2:1-2).

But, God being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. (Eph 2:5-6). There is a way out of the trap we are in. There is a way out of selfishness. There is a way to turn outward to our neighbor. And that is the mercy of God. It is God's Son, Jesus Christ. He is the one who was fully and completely generous. He is the one who loved his neighbor totally, and who fulfilled God's law perfectly. In our gospel reading this morning, we heard about two miracles of Jesus. First he healed a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years. He had compassion on her and showed her and us that he is a compassionate, generous God who saves his people. Then he raised a 12 year old girl from the dead. He shows them and us that he is ruler of all the universe and that he has come to free us from this sin and death that traps us. He walked about doing good, delivering people for their slavery to death, delivering them from illness, from addictions, from the traps they were in. He has delivered us from all that enslaves us, from sin that controls us, from death the reigns over us. Jesus has delivered us from all that by his suffering and death on the cross. From those addictions. From those sinful thoughts. From those sinful desires of the flesh. From our lack of generosity. Our lack of love.

And Jesus fulfilled God's law for us. He did all that God commanded. He has fulfilled all righteousness. The law has been fulfilled. It is done, it is finished. There is no law that can accuse us now of not fulfilling. It has been done for you by Jesus.

How could the Macedonians have the love and the desire to be generous with others even when they were poor? Because of their faith in Jesus Christ. They had the Spirit of God who was at work in them to transform their hearts, to give them love, to fill them with the spirit of generosity.

Jesus, God's Son, did all this by becoming poor. Thought he was rich, he became poor for your sake so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. He became poor all the way to death on the cross. It is by the poverty of God that he makes us rich, rich in love, rich in generosity. Rich in good deeds for the sake of others. God's poverty and death on the cross delivered you from your sinful nature at your baptism. There, at the font of baptism, he set you apart from the sin and evil that reigns in the world. He delivered you from the captivity of your sin. He made you his own, he bestowed the Holy Spirit upon you who came into you in baptism and dwells in you. And by the Spirit's power you can love your neighbor and you can share with him from the abundance of your generosity. You have received the favor, the grace of God, the blessing of God to take part in the relief of the saints.

Amen.